Bellatrix's Vow
by MurasakiNeko
Summary: Bellatrix and Sirius have had a violent rivalry since childhood. The end of Book 5 is actually a very fulfilling ending to a lifelong vow of Bellatrix's. Black cousins before Hogwarts partly in Bellatrix's POV.
1. Wizard Children

Bellatrix's Vow  
  
*I do not own anything related to Harry Potter. None of the characters, nada . . . it is a very sad thing.*  
  
***  
  
"Little monsters, aren't they?" chuckled Alphard Black as he waved his wand casually over the head of his young daughter Bellatrix. The flames, which had erupted there seemingly spontaneously (causing Bellatrix to scream in pain and surprise) went out, leaving nothing but a few slightly singed tufts out of place with her sleek black curls. Bellatrix resumed her play, chasing after her cousin Sirius, to whom she was elder by three years.  
  
"Yes," sighed Rigel, Alphard's older brother and father to Sirius. "Raising wizard children . . . especially multiple wizard children . . . it's a nightmare." He seized his oldest son by the collar as he ran past, hotly pursued by Bellatrix. The boy froze, though resentfully, and did not flinch as his father leaned down and snarled a threat in his ear, "If you set your cousin's hair on fire again . . . "  
  
He let Sirius go and the boy pulled away, though with a slightly more dampened spirit. His Uncle Alphard watched him go with pitying fondness in his eyes. "You do know he can't help it, don't you?"  
  
Rigel was firm. "He needs to learn to control his temper."  
  
Alphard shook his head. "It will come soon enough. He's only six. For now, at least you know he's got his powers. Oh goodness yes-- I was worried Andromeda might be Squibb until she knocked her oatmeal all over Narcissa for taking the last cookie sometime last week. And that's some knack Sirius seems to have there-- he's a regular little firestarter, the pyro!"  
  
"It will all go away as soon as he gets a wand," said Rigel rather unenthusiastically, bored with Alphard's enthusiasm.  
  
"The power won't, though. He'll be a natural at the Incendiary Charm. See, Bella's got power, but she's got no particular skill with one element or another. She just--"  
  
His words were cut short by a wail that rose up from the adjoining room, rising in pitch and intensity like an air-raid siren. The two brothers hastened in, followed by their wives. The scene that met them was mildly inauspicious: Bellatrix, driven to revenge by the events of two minutes ago, was standing over Sirius, her eyes boring into him with the type of glare many would claim "could kill." Her stare was not killing Sirius; however, it was coming rather close. The boy's eyes were clamped shut, his body had gone rigid, and he was proceeding to scream at the top of his tiny lungs.  
  
"Bellatrix!"  
  
Her mother's shout broke her concentration; Bellatrix snapped her head to look in the direction of the noise, and Sirius fell over onto his back, whimpering. With her liquid-black eyes hooded by darkened lids and long eyelashes, Bellatrix looked from her aghast audience to her twitching cousin on the floor and promptly burst into hysterical laughter.  
  
"Er . . . perhaps I spoke too soon," said Alphard awkwardly.  
  
Rigel grinned. "That's a foreshadow to the Cruciatus if I ever saw it. It's lucky I've put a charm on the house so the Ministry can't meddle in; they'd be after us."  
  
Alphard nodded unsteadily. Though Rigel seemed aloof and unconcerned, Sirius's mother had gone to her son's side. Sirius did not cry nor cling to her, but simply shuddered, his eyes set on Bellatrix, whose demonic laughter had transformed into a sweet, innocent smile.  
  
"You two!" Sirius's mother admonished. "The two of you are family! You are to play nicely with one another-- look at Regulus and Narcissa!" She pointed to Sirius's four-year-old brother and Bellatrix's five-year-old sister who were seated before Narcissa's dollhouse. Regulus smiled boastfully, but Narcissa stared mutely back, calm, aloof, somber, and as pristine as a kitten. Little Regulus, overcome with glee at having provided his mother with something to be complimented on, threw his arms around Narcissa, who stiffened. As soon as her cousin released her, she patted her flawless blond curls vainly, recalling a cat cleansing itself after being jostled-- or at least girl much older and more self-conscious than one would expect a five-year-old to be.  
  
"I play nicely with Andromeda," said Sirius defensively, though without much passion. "I just don't like her." He shot Bellatrix a poisonous glance- - which she returned, causing him to draw back and let out a yelp like a wounded dog.  
  
His mother drew back, her face disgusted. "Traitorous! She is your cousin, Sirius, and the two of you shall get along; blood ties demand it!" She stood up quickly, so fast that her wand dropped from her pocket and fell to the floor. She walked off, seeming not to have noticed . . .  
  
(And the rest continues later, from Bellatrix's point of view . . . ) 


	2. The Cruciatus Curse

(I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to it. Sometimes it makes me want to cry, because I will never come up with something that good on my own . . . anyway.)  
  
(Bellatrix's POV)  
  
***  
  
Sirius had never liked me. Not that I returned the favor and felt unrequited . . . Sirius simply did not regard me in the same light as my other cousins. Andromeda, a year older than him, obeyed my every command-- I had taught her the benefits of that at an early age. Sirius was the only one to ever challenge me. Perhaps it was because he knew he was the heir-- or perhaps he had just always been a rebel. Still, it was greatly upsetting to me, his inability to show me my due respect as his eldest cousin. It was my constant battle to teach him otherwise.  
  
He was so fun to toy with, too. His mother didn't understand. Sirius was my entertainment. I needed him to be angry for him to be fun. He and I seemed to be the only two cousins with truly volatile tempers. I could drive Andromeda and Regulus to tears with my teasing, and Narcissa would stare coldly back, but Sirius was the one who ever retaliated. It was refreshing. Perhaps his stubbornness and pride was his weakness. I, a witch child, wandless, was incapable of doing anything unless properly provoked. I could always count on Sirius to do the provoking.  
  
I would tease him for fun, just to get a rise out of him. Then, he would be angry and try something on me. Sometimes he'd make something fall-- like a vase from the top of the bookshelf, or, as he had done once when very provoked, the chandelier in the front hall. Other times he would cause things to burst into flame. Oftentimes he missed, setting ablaze furniture or walls (and once even Narcissa, because she was foolish enough to stand behind me), but he had started to perfect his craft and I was losing curls of hair almost daily to his firestorms. Still . . . it was all worth it. After all, the angrier he got me, the more powerful my counterattack became. I didn't need fire or gravity to cause him pain.  
  
My father explained to me, the first time I ever caused a magical accident, that all wizard children when angry or upset could cause magical calamities, usually reflecting what skills they would be gifted with once bestowed with a wand. I held all the usual symptoms at first-- knocking things off the breakfast table, breaking windows, even causing the curtains in my room to fall down on Kreacher when he opened them, letting light in and waking me up one morning when I was five. It wasn't until one day, when Sirius and I were fighting, of course, that I realized my real gift.  
  
I could make pure pain.  
  
I barely recall what had even provoked me. Perhaps it was yet another one of his childish games with Andomeda, from which he banned me. Regulus and Narcissa have always been too young for my attentions, so if I want to play, I have only Andromeda and Sirius. Nevertheless, Sirius had made me angry. He had turned away from me, and I watched him go, his back to me, hating him, loathing him, willing ultimate pain and suffering on him.  
  
It had worked. He had suddenly crumpled to the floor, screaming, eyes wide and pained, mouth contorted . . . It felt so good, so unbelievably good. I was mad at him, and I could make him pay for it. He would lie on the floor, completely at my mercy-- of which I had none. I could keep him like that as long as I wanted, it was all up to me. I could pour out all my anger into him, displayed as physical pain. It was unnerving, evil, and beautiful. 


	3. Bellatrix's Vow

"So, Sirius . . . you heard what your mummy said. You have to let me play with you," I said delicately, staring hard at him as soon as our parents were gone. I was no longer mad, so it did not hurt him.  
  
He glowered back. "I don't want to play with you. You're bossy and mean and I don't like you."  
  
I crossed my arms. "Dear cousin, I hate you just as much, perhaps more. But there are certain things that are more important than just what you think of me. We're family. We have to be on good terms.."  
  
Sirius smirked. "I don't have to like you if I don't want to. If being loyal to my family means I have to pretend to like you, then forget it. I don't want to be part of the family."  
  
I laughed. "I bet your mummy never told you what happens to people that are traitors to the family, did she?"  
  
Andromeda, who had been watching us cautiously the entire time, suddenly spoke up meekly, trying to stem the fight. "Bella . . . you can play with us if you really want to. I- I don't mind."  
  
Sirius groaned. I grinned. "Thank you, 'Meda. I'm glad YOU have proper respect for me and the family line. So . . . what shall we play?"  
  
"I'm not playing with you. I hate you," said Sirius again shortly, this time a little more insistently.  
  
I shot him the look of death again. "Then we'll play something that allows you to continue to hate me," I snapped. "So you don't have to go through all that trouble. We can play . . . " my eyes fell across the dropped wand just inches from my feet, " . . . Duel."  
  
I dove for the wand. Sirius's eyes had widened, and he made a motion to go after it as well, but I was faster. I stood up and he drew back, staring hard at the wand which was now pointed between his eyes.  
  
The thin piece of wood spread a remarkable feeling through my entire body. I had never held a wand before. It was as if the wand glowed within my fingers, throbbing with power that began to course within my very veins. I could feel its heat spreading along my arm, its power surging within me. I felt powerful, just as powerful if not more so than I had the day I had discovered my secret gift. I didn't even need to be angry to wield this power. It was all there, within me, capable of being released through the simple staff of wood and dragon heartstring I held in my hand.  
  
"Bella . . . " Andromeda gasped. "Put Aunty's wand down."  
  
I simply giggled, my eyes still on Sirius.  
  
"Please, Bella . . . you're not supposed to!" Andromeda continued to plead. I knew very well I would be in huge trouble if I were caught with the wand, Mother had always been so avid about keeping us children away from weapons until we were of age, and we had been told expressly never to pick up our parents' or aunt's or uncle's wand. Still, I ignored her.  
  
Sirius did not seem to mind. "Go on. I dare you," he said, eyes alight.  
  
I felt a giant throb in the power within me. Something told me he would have been screaming in pain on the floor if I hadn't been holding the wand. With the wand, I could harness my power anytime, but I needed to know the spell.  
  
The spell . . . I didn't know any spells.  
  
I strained my memory to think of what my father and Uncle Rigel had been discussing just moments earlier. What spells had they mentioned? I could only recall one of them, the lesser one . . .  
  
Sirius's eyes were still taunting me. I gripped the wand and shouted, "Incendo!"  
  
Nothing happened. Sirius grinned.  
  
I couldn't stand it. "Incentio! Incendrio!" I waved the wand, practically swinging it, as if I were beating something in front of me. Sirius began to laugh, accelerating and rising in pitch as I failed over and over. A few red sparks showered out of the top at one point, but that was all.  
  
I screamed with wrath and frustration, heedless of the fact that all my cousins were staring-- and one was laughing. I looked like an utter fool. It did not occur to me to drop the wand and simply stare pain into Sirius.  
  
"INCENDIO!" I screamed a finally time. The wand was pointed haphazardly at Narcissa's dollhouse, but I succeeded. The dollhouse burst into flames several feet high. Andromeda, Regulus, and Narcissa all screamed. The two smallest cousins leapt to their feet and backed to the wall, staring in horror at the terror I had wreaked on their plaything. I looked from the bonfire to the small wand in my hand, amazed at my power.  
  
Regulus was crying, Andromeda was dead shocked, and even Narcissa was whimpering, but Sirius was laughing at the top of his lungs. I rounded on him.  
  
"I can do it to you." I said coldly, the dollhouse blazing behind me. "I know the spell now."  
  
He stopped laughing, but his eyes continued to mock me. He still dared . . .  
  
"Incedio!" I jabbed the wand in front of me like a fencing rapier and a jolt of red light flew from the end.  
  
His eyes widened and he dipped to the side; the light flew over his shoulder and become a fireball on the wall behind him. I had missed; I screamed in aggravation.  
  
Sirius was laughing at me. "Come on, you can do better than that!"  
  
I whipped the wand again and cried "Incendio!"  
  
He ducked again. I had missed once again; half the couch caught on fire. Andromeda leapt off of it in sheer terror and dashed to the side of Regulus and Narcissa, who were backing away from the quickly swelling inferno. All three of my set fires were growing quickly; there was little room for them to stand that was not being consumed by the raging flames.  
  
Still, Sirius laughed.  
  
Suddenly, our parents appeared in the doorway, running, shocked. "Fire!" my father shouted. "Put it out! Put it out! Aquarius Charm!"  
  
"Where's my wand?" shrieked my aunt. Then she saw it in my hand. Her face blanched-- I knew she comprehended everything. She bounded over to me, knocked me to the ground, and pulled the wand from my hand. I stared up silently around at the adults as they dashed from inferno to inferno, dousing them with water sprayed from their wands. Andromeda was holding Regulus, who was sobbing onto her sleeve. Narcissa was staring with glazed- over eyes at her destroyed dollhouse. Sirius folded his arms and stood above me, grinning, his eyes also on his parents.  
  
Finally, when all of the flames were gone and the living room smoked around us, sizzling quietly, charred and burnt, all four of them turned to me in horror.  
  
My mother stepped silently towards me, her eyes cold as ice. "What . . . did . . . I . . . say . . . about WANDS?" she cried.  
  
I stared back at her, my lips sealed, still sprawled on the floor.  
  
"Bellatrix . . . you could have seriously hurt one of your cousins or even yourself. Why on earth were you using such a violent curse? What were trying to do?" my father's voice was softer.  
  
My eyes shifted to Sirius. They all saw.  
  
"She hates me," Sirius shrugged. "But it's okay, because I don't like her either. I would have done the same thing."  
  
My father snorted. "Such honesty!"  
  
"No, you would NOT have done the same thing!" my aunt scolded to him. "None of you! Such curses do not fly between members of the same family!"  
  
My mother, still enraged, leaned down and pulled my uncomfortably by the upper arm to my feet. She whirled me around to face her. I stared up boldly, shoulders square and back straight.  
  
She lifted her right hand and struck me across the face. I could the heat rise in my face, but I kept my eyes on her, refusing to let her believe I was at all ashamed. "There is to be no such behavior from you like that ever again, Bellatrix! You are not to touch another wand until you are of age, and if you ever attempt to curse a member of your family . . . " her eyes bulged; I did not need for her to finish the sentence.  
  
Sirius chortled quietly behind me.  
  
"Go up to your room," my father offered. I turned away from my mother and marched-- no, floated, flew, glided-- proud, straight, and defiant, to the stairs in the front hall.  
  
I turned back only once. Only Sirius saw the look I shot back.  
  
I would have my revenge for this. The day would come. The day when I could hold my own wand. The day when Sirius was no longer a family member I had to play nicely with. The day when, as he laughed tauntingly in my face, daring me to try to again, I would calmly raise my wand, and watch him fall.  
  
And then I would be the one laughing. 


End file.
